Week of June 15th

   Here is a great book I read and my review of it.   It is Renovation of the Heart by Dallas Willard.  It hits at the heart of my own ministry philosophy---"not pun intended!"

A Review of Renovation of the Heart by John Jones

     This book was quite helpful in confirming in my mind what is the MAIN THING.  As Baptists, we have always talked about making the “main thing”, the “main thing”!   Being conformed to the image of Christ is ultimately the most important issue.   Dallas Willard makes an articulate case that the primary focus ought to be conformity to Jesus Christ.  If we lose sight of this, according to Willard, we fall into the trap of concentrating on the vessel at the expense of the treasure.   Using II Corinthians 3 and 4 as his main text, he tells us that the vessel is comprised of all of the externals of church life---our polity, our programs, our worship style, our architecture and the like.  The treasure is comprised of the internals of Christianity---Christlikeness shaped within our inner man, driving our wills to think and act rightly.   He bemoans the fact that churches get off base when they focus on the externals or the vessel rather than the treasure---the Spirit of God working His fruits in us (Gal. 5:22,23).  We can easily in today’s culture, both at the individual level or corporate church level, place our attention on the “vessel” issues that will burn up in light of eternity.   In His view (and I agree), this is the single most tragic mistake that believers and churches can make.  When we shift our focus and attention to the externals, we lose sight of the main thing----Christlikeness.  What is the result?  It is shattered lives in the church and hypocritical living.  It is a kind of Christianity that is odious to the world around us.  Instead of attracting people to the faith, we are driving them away. 

     So what is the way out of this mess, according to Willard?   The way out that he proposes involves several factors.  It involves an understanding of how we as human beings function, how we are constructed as a spiritual being.  Once we have this understanding, then making changes in our inner lives, our outward body and in our social structures.   One of the helpful factors in his book is his description of how the human being makes decisions.  According to Willard, what is central to our lives is the human heart, the will and the human spirit.  He essentially uses these terms interchangeably to refer to the inner place of being where we choose and where convictions are developed.  It is here where we decide upon a course of action.  I believe Willard is right on this.  Jesus told us that the heart is the crucial aspect of where man’s issues are decided (Mark 7).   Our thoughts, feelings and social atmosphere can definitely influence greatly what we decide in our heart.   That is why we are to sift through our thoughts, feelings and social atmosphere and bring every thought/feeling into subjection to Jesus Christ (IICor. 10:5).  He goes onto to elaborate the human function in these areas of the mind, heart, spirit, will and feelings.   To sum up, however, he basically gets it right on how we operate.  I would only add that the Hebrew culture was quite different than the Greek culture.  To the Hebrews, it was the inner man and the outer man.   They did not divide man up into the tricotomy system of the Greeks.  However the result is the same.  We make decisions in our inner being that results in outward Christian or non Christian behavior.  Our role is to willingly take charge of that inner man and bring it into subjection to Christ and His Word.  Only then can we have “right” actions.

     A particularly helpful aspect in his book was his section on feelings.   Throughout his book, he emphasizes futility of living life by our feelings.  He spends much time in his book talking about modernity’s mocking gesture towards faith and reason.  It is feeling, passion and man’s senses that matter in modernity.  This all started with a few foolish French philosophers and it now has permeated our society.  What America and Europe witnessed through the “hippie” era, was essentially the exultation of physical feeling as the supreme euphoria of man.  This is over against the mind, reason and faith kind of philosophy to arrive at truth.   Man no longer an existential being who can decide matters of right or wrong.  As a product of evolution, he is a higher animal of instinct who can only be a slave to his passions.  Even if there is a metaphysical aspect to life, it must be arrived at through our senses in order to be meaningful to us.  That is why so much emphasis is placed upon entertainment in any venue.  If we are to even attempt “reason” with people, it is often futile unless it is preceded by sensations of feeling or people will simply not listen.    Our culture has become a culture of passions.  The danger for the church is quite evident.   Music (a feeling mode of communication) then becomes central to church life and supplants the spoken Word.   If there is a spoken Word, it must be diluted with all kinds of video sights and sounds that appeal to our physical man or we will find it hard pressed to listen.   

     Willard points out that one of the greatest tragedies in the Christian world is the impact of immorality in the lives of believers.  Rather than triumph over the feelings of our culture, we follow the culture and get caught up in the euphoric feeling of an affair.   As a result, the sin that brings death erodes the family structures and eventually the churches they attend.   The key is to get back relegating feeling to its proper place, a by product of our spiritual life that can be enjoyed but always held in scrutiny to the Word of God.   He mentions that in early Christianity, particularly the Puritans, believers were not governed by feeling.  They took birth, death, work and enjoyment of creation as a whole unit.  They did not try and escape pain or suffering.  It was a part of life.  They knew that there was a joy from following Christ (John 15) that encompassed the living of all of life, both its “happy circumstantial times” and times of pain or trial.   By looking at the ancients, Willard reminds us how screwed up our modern culture is.    

     One of the most helpful things in the book is the emphasis on the church as developing the treasure of Christ in us and not the externals.  The importance of this cannot be overstated.  To get it turned around is to fall into the same trap as the Pharisees or even the Israelites.  Isaiah told the ancient Israelites that they had forgotten the holiness of the inner man.  They followed ritual and forgot about the heart being devoted to God (Is. 1-5).   As a result, they could sin and still go to worship.  The Lord reminded them that if the heart is wrong, then the physical worship is wrong.  No sacerdotal duties of outward sanctity can hide their rebellion of God’s Word in their homes and in the world.   So Isaiah called them back to repent and get their hearts right with God. 

      The other valuable contribution is his emphasis on love as being the defining aspect of my life and the life of the church.  Here Willard brings in the importance of I Cor. 13, not just for weddings but for how we live life.   Part of the problem with Christians today is that we exalt performance in our churches as being the picture of godly Christianity.  If people serve, then they are considered spiritual.   Willard reminds his readers that he is not against acts of service.  However our acts of service need to flow out of a transformed heart.  Otherwise God looks down at our Christianity and sees it not much different that the Pharisaic Christianity of Jesus’ day.  Jesus spoke His harshest words to these Pharisees.  They were all concerned with washing the outside of the cup but left the inside full of dirt.  They were like white washed tombs---appearing great on the outside but on the inside were full of dead man’s bones (Matt. 23).  Willard calls us back to an early form of Christianity that involves walking with him in our inner beings.   The most obvious place where this should be seen is in our family lives.  We ought to have great relationships with our wives and kids.  If not, then why not?